Man Sentenced to Death for Killing Boy in 1992

After deliberating less than 10 minutes Wednesday, a jury sentenced a man to death by lethal injection in the 1992 slaying of a 9-year-old boy whose case was unsolved for almost a decade.

Perry Allen Austin, 42, pleaded guilty earlier this week to capital murder. He confessed to killing David Kazmouz to get back at Kazmouz's older teen-age brother.

Austin, who already is serving 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting a child and an additional 20 years for stabbing an inmate, represented himself in the punishment phase of the trial.

He did not testify, but during closing statements Wednesday he told the jury the evidence that prosecutors Luci Davidson and Renee Magee presented against him was correct.

"Pretty much everything they said about me is true," Austin told the panel. "I'm violent, mean… Sometimes I have no conscience…I've been like this all my life. I'm not about to change."

In deciding whether Austin should spend his life in prison or be executed, the jury was asked to answer two special issue questions.

The first was whether Austin was a future danger. If they unanimously agreed he was, the jury could then move to the second question regarding mitigating circumstances.

Austin told the jurors that if they sent him back to prison, he would commit more acts of violence. Then he said there were no mitigating factors, "no reason for killing him (Kazmouz)."

Davidson told the jury that Austin had spent only three years of his adult life interacting in society. And in that time he had raped his sister, robbed his sister, and mother, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and killed Kazmouz.

"That is what he has done in the three years we have let him out in this society," Davidson said. "We certainly can't trust him ever again in the free society. But we can't trust him in the prison system."

Austin had been on parole about a year from the 1978 rape and robbery convictions when he befriended the Kazmouz brothers in 1992.

Although he was always considered a suspect in Kazmouz's death, it wasn't until January 2001 that he confessed from prison.

During the initial investigation, police discovered Austin was having sex with a 14-year-old girl. He pleaded guilty and has been serving a 30-year sentence for sexual assault of a child.

In 1995, another 20 years was added to his sentence for stabbing an inmate. He also has a lengthy disciplinary prison record that includes assaulting guards.

Testimony showed that Austin had been paroled to Houston and was workign as a drug courier for a street gang when he met Kazmouz's other brother Karrem, who was 16 at the time. Davidson waid Austin throught Karrem Kazmouz had stolen some drugs from him.

"Because Karrem took from him, he was going to take from Karrem. He took his little brother," Davidson told the jury earlier this week.

David Kazmouz was abducted August 19, 1992, from his Sharpstown neighborhood. Despite an intensive search and nationwide billboard campaign, his skeletal remains were not discovered until April 1993 in a wooded area about six miles from the Kazmouz home.

Davidson said Austin picked Kazmouz up near his home that summer day, injected him with Demerol, tied him up and slit his throat from ear to ear.

The boy's mother, Fay Kazmouz, earlier this week testified that her family had been riddled with guilt since the day her son was abducted.

She said her middle son, Michael, who was 13 at the time, blamed himself because he was watching David that day while he mother was at work.

Eight-year-old David Kazmouz was my neighbor. He was a typical friendly little boy who never met a stranger. Most of the people in this neighborhood have moved on and not many around here knew David, but I did. Hardly a day passed that I don't think of David; you see, we took in David's Golden Retriever "Gypsy" when David was abducted. Every day of Gypsy's life, when we'd go outside, she would glance toward the house where David had lived. Gypsy died in December 2001.

Since David's abduction, I've never been the same. I remember the horror of knowing there was a killer among us and feeling powerless. Today I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that justice was done.

Thanks for you story.

Rat shot behind the ear tomorrow morning is what this guy ought to get.

How many prison guards will he assault before he's finally put to death?

we took in David's Golden Retriever "Gypsy"

There is somethng special about people that like dogs, and dogs do respond to those people.

Thank you for your story and for being a good neighbor.

my family and i were also David's neighbors, my daughters were friends with all three boys, and spent many hours at their house, with them and their mother. the older boys werent at my house much, but David was, even tho he wasnt to cross the street, he would ride all the way to the house and call us from across the street, to come and get him. I remember his funeral like it was yesterday and his death was one of the main reasons i wanted OUT of Houston. We all knew that Austin did this terrible thing, but no way to prove it. How awful for Fay and her family, and sooooo sad were the faces of David's many friends at the funeral. i say burn Perry Allen Austin at the stake, cos no greater evil have i ever laid eyes on, and i DID lay eyes on him, i found out later, much to my horror. i will never know, i dont suppose, whether my daighters had anything to do with this monster before David's disappearance, but i dont want to know, now. it would give me nightmare either way. Im sure that any contact they had with him was only because he was THERE, and oh yes!! THERE he was, only 11 months after being released on mandatory EARLY release from prison!!!! Dear God!! Help us keep these monsters away from our children!!

My prayers still go to the family, if you ever read these.

I have often thought of this little boy. When it was announced on the news that he was missing, I thought I recognized him and contacted an investigator and offered to help. I also called his mother and offered to help. Years have gone by but I always think of little David and his family. I am now a mother and my heart goes out to his mother for the loss of a child. I will continue to pray for this family and although it has been so many years, I know it feels as if it were only yesterday. May God bless you until you are with David again.

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